Jonathan Safran Foer — writer with roots in the Russian Empire
Jonathan Safran Foer. Novelist of Everything Is Illuminated, born in Washington, D.C.; grandson of Holocaust survivors from Volhynia. His mother, Esther Safran Foer, was born in 1946 to Holocaust survivors from Volhynia: Louis (Leibel) Safran, from Lysche near Trochenbrod, and Ethel, from Kolki. The region belonged to the Russian Empire until 1917 and to Poland between the wars; the grandparents' birth years, and so the sovereign at their birth, are not recorded.
"His grandparents survived the Holocaust, married after the war and lived in Łódź, where his mother was born in 1946, before emigrating to the United States."
Migration storyTracing the roots — Lysche near Trochenbrod and Kolki, Volhynia (now Ukraine) - maternal grandparents; birth years not documented
His mother, Esther Safran Foer, was born in 1946 to Holocaust survivors from Volhynia: Louis (Leibel) Safran, from Lysche near Trochenbrod, and Ethel, from Kolki. The region belonged to the Russian Empire until 1917 and to Poland between the wars; the grandparents' birth years, and so the sovereign at their birth, are not recorded.
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Lysche near Trochenbrod and Kolki, Volhynia (now Ukraine) - maternal grandparents; birth years not documented. At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.
A career defined by ambition
"You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness."